Inspired by awards programs like Grammies and the Academy Awards Show, the "Pwnies" celebrate both security super skills and horrific incompetence. They are voted on by professionals in the field of information security -- most of which would be called "grey" or "white" hat hackers.

The awards will be held August 3 and winners, as usual, will receive a painted gold My Little Pony -- a phonetic play on the internet slang "pwn" for being made a fool of (getting "owned on"). "Pwnie" and "pony" are homophones.

Returning categories this year include:

Best Server-Side Bug

Best Client-Side Bug

Best Privilege Escalation Bug

Most Innovative Research

Lamest Vendor Response

Best Song

Most Epic FAIL

The "Most Epic 0wnage" category has been add, as well. Competitors include the prolific LulzSec who hacked Sony Corp. (TYO:6758) and others [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] earlier this year and Bradley Manning/Wikileaks who raised an international ruckus by publishing U.S. State Department and Department of Defense secrets [1][2][3][4][5].

Speaking of Sony, the company has been nominated multiple times for the "Epic FAIL" award. In fact, it's this year's only listed nominee.

I shed a tear everytime I think of Lik SangBut shit man, they're a corporationAnd I'm a personification of freedom for allYou fill dockets, like thats a concept foreign to y'allWhile lawyers muddy water and TROs stallOut of business is jail for meAnd you're suing me civilly.